His End Game (MMG #1) (34 page)

My heart soared when he said this and I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes.”

Before I could close my door, he squatted down and once he was eye level with me he softly touched my face.

The look on his face made my heart hurt. “Is everything okay, Max?”

In a voice that was slightly above a whisper, he said, “I swear that I will not fuck this all up and nothing on this earth will ever make me leave you again.” Then, he stood up, closed my door and headed toward his truck.

When we got to my house, he pulled me out of my car and asked, “Have you eaten?”

“No, have you?”

“No. Is your dad here?”

“He’s upstairs asleep. Why don’t I load some food on a tray, we can eat it in the living room and…”

“The bedroom,” he interrupted.

“Huh?”

“Let’s take it to the bedroom. There’s a lot I have to say and we might as well be comfortable for it.”

I loaded cheese, bread and ham onto a tray. Then I tossed in some grapes and strawberries. Snagging two beers from the fridge, I carried it all to my bedroom. My breath stuck in my throat when I saw Max stretched out on the bed and waiting for me.

God sure didn’t leave anything out when he made this man
.

Kicking off my shoes, I crawled onto the bed and settled the tray between us. We ate for a few minutes before he began telling his story. “That last night that we were together, before everything happened, was the best night of my life. I knew without a doubt that I had found the girl that I was going to spend my forever with.” Grabbing a pillow, he shifted to get
more comfortable. “I was seriously pissed off that I had to go to work the next morning because I wanted to spend the day in bed showing you all the ways you were mine.”

“I wanted that too. I remember feeling so sad when you drove away.”

Smiling, he squeezed my leg. “I planned on getting off work early that day so I could surprise you at the café. Around eleven that morning, my phone rang. The caller ID said that it was Sarah so, of course, I answered. She was crying so hard I couldn’t understand what she was saying. All I could make out was that there was a man and guns and something about our dad. I knew she was in trouble and left the garage thinking that, once again, my dad had done something really stupid. I was going to have to not only take care of Sarah, but also clean up his mess. When I got to the house she was sitting on the front porch crying. It wasn’t until I got out of my truck that I saw the two men with her.”

“Did you know them?”

“No. I had never laid eyes on them before. I figured by the way they were dressed that they were probably detectives. When I called Sarah over to talk me, one of them asked if I was her brother. She answered him and he nodded as if giving her permission to come to me. I remember how pissed off that made me. She was crying hard and babbling shit I couldn’t begin to understand so I knew that something bad had happened. The men gave us a minute to talk before introducing themselves.” Pausing, he looked up at me. “They were FBI agents, Ells.”

“What did your father do, Max? It had to be really bad to call in the FBI, right?”

“Oh yeah. Agent Marshall and Agent Caldwell informed me that my dear old dad was involved in a drug ring. Apparently the local police arrested him in a raid six months earlier and he agreed to become an informant in order to avoid jail time and
a possible prison sentence. He was to help get evidence on the head of the organization, a real winner of a guy named Rocky Ponterelli.”

I started to tear up but swallowed and tried to hold them back. “Benny swore it was something to do with your dad, but I never dreamed that it was
this
. By the way, does Benny know you are back?”

“I stopped by to see him on my way out of town. I’ll tell you about that later.”

“Okay, sorry to interrupt. Please continue.”

He reached for my hand. “In addition to dealing drugs in North Carolina, Rocky was also dealing in South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia. Because he went across state lines, the local police brought in the FBI. The plan was for my dad to arrange a drug buy. The FBI was going to swoop in and bust them all. Unfortunately, the previous purchases always went down at our house, so that was the location they needed to use to set this up. It was supposed to be a cut and dried operation.”

I gasped, clamping down on his hand. “Please tell me your dad was smart enough to get Sarah out of the house!”

“Not quite. Something went wrong with the plan. Sarah was supposed to be at her friend’s house while I was working, but somehow Rocky was tipped off that the meeting was a sting and sent three of his guys to our house hours before the designated time. When my dad saw them pull up, he knew something was wrong and told Sarah to get into her closet and not to come out. Rocky’s guys came in, found my dad in the living room and shot him in the back.”

“Dead?” I whispered.

He nodded.

Clapping my hands over my mouth, I gasped, “Oh my God, Max, that’s what the stain on the floor was?” He stared at me quizzically. “Kurt and I knew that the stain on the floor hadn’t
been there when we were last at your house. We thought it was coffee or something like it but never considered blood.” The thought made me sick.

“When were you at the house?”

“Joss and I drove by the day after you didn’t show up at the café. Both your truck and your dad’s car were sitting in the drive. I knew how you felt about your dad and didn’t want you to be mad at me so we didn’t stop. A couple of days later, Kurt knocked on your door but got no answer. Your cars were there the whole time.” I swallowed back the tears. “We knew something wasn’t right. We couldn’t take it any longer, so Benny helped us break into your house to see what we could find. We found some of your things gone and thought you might have headed to school early. We checked in at ASU but you weren’t there either. The school said that you hadn’t finished your enrollment and they hadn’t seen you.

Clearly agitated, Max ran his fingers through his hair. I wanted to comfort him but also wanted to hear the rest of the story. “God, Ells, it was all so damn complicated.”

“Go on,” I encouraged. I needed to hear the rest. “What happened after they killed your dad?”

Taking a deep breath, he continued. “Sarah sat in her closet for several hours before the FBI decided that the coast was clear.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“Because the FBI had our house bugged and had been listening in for quite some time.”

My pulse spiked and I could feel my face turning red. “Please tell me your room wasn’t bugged?”

His blue eyes twinkled. “I think the whole house was, why?”

My eyes widened in surprise.

Holy hell, the FBI has tapes of me doing who knows what
.

Max grinned wickedly and, as if reading my mind, said, “I told them I would pay my whole inheritance to have those tapes of us.”

“You did not!”

He busted out laughing. “Na, I just wanted to see your face when I said that.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Did they really tape us?”

“No, they skipped over mine and Sarah’s bedrooms.”

“Anyway,” he continued, now seeming a little more relaxed, “the FBI knew when Rocky’s guys showed up early that the bust had gone south. They waited for over an hour after seeing the guys leave before approaching the house, making sure the coast was clear. They didn’t go in when they heard the initial gun shots because they didn’t want to compromise the case. They still didn’t have Rocky but now, thanks to my dad, they had two of his guys on their radar. By the time the coast was clear, they were pretty sure that Sarah had been killed as well. When they got inside, they found her huddled in a ball and scared out of her mind. That was when she called me hysterically crying. When I arrived home, FBI agents told us to grab only what we could carry. They had discovered several recording devices planted in our house. This meant that Rocky had also been watching our house and would discover that his guys screwed up and missed an important factor when they took out my dad.”

“They missed your sister,” I filled in. “But Sarah didn’t see them, did she?”

“Yes, and the FBI knew she would be a target if she could point out the guys in a line up. The trail would lead them straight to Rocky. There was no way that he was going to let a twelve year old girl take him down, so they had to immediately relocate us. They gave us ten minutes to pack. Since I already had a duffle packed for school, I just grabbed it and helped Sarah.
Another set of agents came by, picked us up and drove us to a safe house in Kentucky.”

“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “Was the local police ever involved or was it always just the FBI?”

“The local police were involved until they realized that Rocky’s tentacles reached beyond North Carolina. Then they were obligated to turn it over to the FBI, why?”

“Because when Kurt and I went to the local police, Detective Copeland seemed interested in everything we had to say at first. When he got back to me, he implied that you had decided to move on without me and more or less told me that I needed to get on with my life.”

“I think the local police were pissed because the FBI took over their case and didn’t want their assistance. I bet that this happened sometime between the time that you first spoke to Copeland and the time he got back in touch with you. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Pulling me to him, he wrapped his arms around me.

“So, you were in Kentucky?” I asked, needing to hear more.

“They relocated us to Danville, Kentucky. I became Jack Barnett and Sarah became Amanda Barnett. They put us in a two bedroom house and set me up with a job at the local garage down the street.”

I pulled away and looked in his eyes. “You just disappeared. You were there for the best months of my life and then you were gone. I can’t even tell you what that felt like, what it did to me.” I tried to stop the tears but couldn’t.

“I begged for them to let me call you and just say goodbye, but they told me that Rocky may already have some of his guys watching you and if I called you or came to see you, I would put you in danger. I couldn’t risk your life Ellison. I just couldn’t. I had to let you go. I had to walk away.” I could tell this was as hard on him as it was on me. The pain on his face said it all.

“I called you every night to hear your voice and left you messages for months.”

“I know babe, believe me, it’s the only thing that got me through those months.”

“Wait, you listened to them?” I didn’t know whether to be hurt, angry or relieved.

“Every night, before I went to bed, I hit play and listened to your messages. I heard every one of them.”

Frowning in disbelief, I tried to grasp what he was telling me. “The AT&T operator said that no one had used your phone for months.”

“The FBI can do anything, Ells, including tamper with phone bills.”

Confused, I blinked up at him. “So, you knew I listened to your iPod and went with Kurt and Joss to ASU to look for you? You knew that I was sleeping in your bed just to feel close to you? You heard me pour my heart out over and over in all of those voicemails. Yet, you couldn’t manage to get a note to me or something telling me that you were alive and okay?” Years of pent up feelings were bubbling to the surface and I wasn’t sure I could stop them from boiling over. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.

The intensity of his stare was a little frightening. “I couldn’t call you, Ellison. Fuck! I couldn’t write to you. Hell, for months I wasn’t even allowed to shit by myself!” He growled in frustration. “Don’t you think it killed me? All I thought about for most of that first year was that at the end of my day I was going to get to hear your sweet voice again. I couldn’t wait to get Sarah to bed each night so I could push play and hear about whatever it was you were doing. Night after night I went over scenarios in my head trying to figure out of how I could safely contact you. Yes, I knew you were sleeping in my bed and you know what? I wanted you there! I imagined that I was there with you! I knew
that the FBI was watching over you, but so was Rocky! I knew that you were safe as long as I stayed away. I was protecting the only person, besides my sister, that I had ever let myself love! Don’t you get that?”

My eyes immediately filled. “Why did you get rid of your voicemail then? One day it suddenly didn’t work. If you missed me so much then why did you take that away? It almost killed me not to be able to hear your voice anymore.” I swiped at my tears, angry that I was shedding them like a weak little girl.

He pulled me in closer. “It almost killed me too, babe. You have to believe me. Unknowingly, Sarah told one of the agents that I spent every night on my cell phone. I wasn’t supposed to have a cell phone anymore. They found out that I had been paying Max McLellan’s cell phone bills in North Carolina and freaked. The agents in charge of us were sure that it was going to lead Rocky straight to us but I convinced them otherwise. They would let us stay in Kentucky if I got rid of the phone and the account. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Please believe me,” he choked out.

“Did you even
go
to college? Do you really own garages?” I asked, voice cracking.